Flying up here this week was quite a memorable experience. I wound up taking a later flight from Sacramento because I had forgotten to make my flight reservations on time last week. But this later flight was one of the most memorable of the dozens of trips that I’ve taken over the past three months.

For one thing, Carlos Santana was on the same flight with me. I, personally, didn’t recognize him at all, not being a fan of Carlos Santana, but his presence seemed to have inspired the entire flight crew. The pilot serenaded us with a couple of songs of his own about taking off and landing, while the lead stewardess showed off her improvisational comedy skills while reading the passengers the safety instructions. "Be sure to keep your seat in the most upright and uncomfortable position possible," she announced, "and if you’re seated next to a small child or next to someone simply acting like a small child, secure your own oxygen mask first before securing your child’s or husband’s." It was the first time I’d ever heard the stewardess’s safety instruction speech applauded; it was also the first time I’d ever seen all of the passengers actually pay attention to the instructions.

It turned out that Carlos Santana had just performed in Sacramento the night before I flew up here, and that he was going to perform the following night in Portland. Opening for Santana would be the band Everlast… who also happened to be staying in the same hotel that I was in during this final week. I like the band Everlast, but I didn’t get to see them or party with them at all, unfortunately.

Meanwhile, I have fantasies and dreams of what things will be like for me when I finally am back in California full-time. I fantasize that I’ll be able to go back to the workout program, that I’ll be able to tutor literacy again, that I’ll be able to spend my evenings with Jennifer and go back to learning how to program in Java, C++, or PHP. These may all be pipe dreams, though; it’s not unusual for me to put in fourteen or sixteen hour days while up here in Portland, and there really isn’t any reason to expect that that will change just because I’m in my home state; my boss, in fact, informs me that the stress level will be "turned up a notch" starting in December. And, unfortunately, it looks like I’ll be doing HTML and front end design only for all of that time.

I’ll miss my window seat here at my picnic table, looking out at the hills to the north of Portland. The leaves on all of the trees on the hillside are turning now, and I love looking out at the trees overhanging the mixture of old and new buildings. And it’s raining up here today; apparently it’s also raining down in Sacramento, from what I hear.